Links

John Canemaker Sheds Light on the Cutting Edge Art of Disney

By Chuck Pyle

Academy Award winner and noted authority on the history
of animation John Canemaker gave an hour-long talk and
signed books for attendees. Photo by Tina Hittenberger.

On Monday, Nov. 24, Academy Award winner and noted authority on the history of animation, John Canemaker, gave an hour-long talk sponsored by Academy of Art University’s School of Animation & Visual Effects and The Walt Disney Family Museum at the 79 New Montgomery Theater, where he spoke on his new book, The Lost Notebook: Herman Schultheis & the Secrets of Walt Disney’s Movie Magic.

Schultheis worked at The Walt Disney Studios from 1937 to 1940 and kept a private detailed journal of all the secret and extremely innovative inventions that the Disney effects crew created to make phenomenally cutting edge art in movies, such as Fantasia and Pinocchio. His notebooks, lost until the 1990s, were rediscovered in his estate and bought by Diane Disney for The Walt Disney Family Museum.

Disney asked Canemaker, who had already written several books on the noted Disney artist Mary Blair, if he would take on this project, in which he combined the notebooks and Schultheis’ biography into one fascinating exploration of the ad hoc creation of so many of the effects that made Disney films so eye-popping to audiences worldwide.

Canemaker’s talk and book both coincide with a comprehensive show, The Lost Notebook: Secrets of Disney’s Movie Magic at The Walt Disney Family Museum exhibiting the notebooks and the final film results. The exhibit will run through January 12, 2015.